Press On For Better Background Checks For Guns

Way too often, from Connecticut to Virginia to Arizona, mentally unstable people get their hands on firearms. To stop this, state officials are creating a database of people who are disqualified for mental health reasons from owning a gun, part of a nationwide effort to strengthen federal background checks by improving state reporting.

The Courant's Jenny Wilson has reported that the new system includes both Probate and Superior Court records that cover those who have been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility and those who have been found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty due to insanity. The database is expected to be completed by July 1 and will create access to records from the past 14 years.

Strengthening the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, is a must if the country is to improve gun safety. But a background check system only works when gun purchasers submit to it.

At present, mentally ill people, as well as criminals, terrorists, gang members and what have you, can still go to gun shows or the Internet and buy all the guns they want, thanks to the U.S. Senate's cowardly failure to pass a bill expanding background checks.

But since that vote, an unusual thing has happened. Proponents of gun safety didn't roll over or shut down. Instead, they have brought pressure to bear on senators who voted against the bill.

Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, the only Northeasterner who voted against the measure, saw her poll numbers drop by 15 percent, a decline some other solons who opposed the bill saw as well. Organizations such as Mayors Against Illegal Guns ran ads critical of Sen. Ayotte and others — and rightly so.

Why Background Checks Are Needed

Background checks, which for years have been required at federally licensed gun stores, have stopped the purchase of almost 2 million guns by people who shouldn't have them. More than 90 percent of Americans favor universal background checks, a tribute to our common sense. Do we want representatives of al-Qaida or the Crips able to arm themselves at gun shows?

Sen. Ayotte's explanation for her nay vote was so feeble that it's hard not to conclude that she and the others were simply afraid of the (to some degree perceived) political power of the National Rifle Association, which appears to favor selling as many guns as possible to whoever has the money.

But it's encouraging to see New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other mayors, and many others across the country, standing up to the NRA — which, by the way, currently opposes an international arms treaty that was overwhelmingly approved by the United Nations to regulate trade in conventional weapons.

Let's try to focus on this country, where anyone who thinks gun violence isn't a major public health issue isn't paying attention.

Children With Guns

Earlier this month, an 11-year-old shot a 12-year-old child in the face in Camden, N.J., in what authorities are describing as an accident. The child is expected to survive. A 2-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself in the head in Corsicana, Texas. A 3-year-old boy in Tampa, Fla., fatally shot himself with his uncle's gun. A 5-year-old boy shot his 7-year-old brother in Houston, Texas.

In the previous week, a 2-year-old girl in Kentucky died after her 5-year-old brother accidentally shot her in the chest with a .22 -caliber rifle he received as a gift. When we talk about guns and mental health, who in his right mind gives a real gun to a 5-year-old?

In 2010, 31,672 people died by guns, almost as many as died in car accidents and way higher number than in other Western democracies. It's time to bring the background check bill back.